Posts in "Philosophy"

Here at YAL- NC Wesleyan we started off the semester by educating many of our fellow students on the constitution. I will personally say our turn out was better than expected. We handed out all of our pocket constitutions and bill of rights slips that were sent to us. Additionally, students got involved in debates about the rights of the first amendment. In these small debates we discussed what is considered a peaceful assembly and how we can advocate our rights as citizens. During this event we had students write their favorite amendments on note cards and we taped them outside the library; we had 76 students involved in this act of support. Overall, the event was a success and we have gained two new possible members. Activism is looking good on this side of the United States.

P.S. We had many international students learn their rights for the first time. Which was an awesome experience to be able to educate them about how great our nation is.

There's only been two weeks since classes started at Florida Gulf Coast University, but the Young Americans for Liberty chapter in conjunction with the Students for Liberty student group has already pulled off 2 successful events and 3 successful tabling sessions.

Our first event of the semester was held on August 24th where we discussed the philosophy of Libertarianism.

Our second event of the semester was held on August 31st where we discussed the economic and moral implications of price gouging in response to natural disasters.

Upcoming, we have a discussion on Free Speech scheduled for September 7th and we have a guest economic speaker, Christopher Lingle, coming to speak to us regarding interest rates.

These events accompanied with at least one tabling session each week have definitely sparked the interests of the politically inclined freshmen and we are hoping to expose them to the ideas of liberty so that they can continue to spread the message long after our current leaders have graduated and moved on.

During the first week of fall semester, Purdue YAL went straight to work in spreading the message. Our chapter was set up in a prime location, and we were bearing pocket Constitutions. Time to kick butt! We met with hundreds of students to ask them what their opinions were of the Constitution, and then told them a little about our club. It felt great being able to hold intelligent discussions with so many young individuals who share the same distrust and fear in big government. These first few days of tabling are going to set us up for success during our future callout.

This tabling session had a lot of extra, unexpected weight this year, as only a week before our recruitment UVA had been the battleground of Charlottesville's infamous white nationalist rally.

As a result, we had to really look into tailoring our message towards supporting freedom, including speech and expression, while also distancing ourselves from some of the messaging expressed by the protesters at the rally and emphasizing an opposition to fascism. We also needed to advertise the 30th Anniversary Event for our umbrella organization, Students for Individual Liberty, which will feature the prestigious speaker Dr. Tom Palmer.

Because our well-worn old poster was finally at the end of its days, we created a new one that focused on the events we run and our core beliefs. It also has space for new material as the club continues to grow and host events. We placed logos for some affiliated organizations on the poster and placed handouts of liberty organizations on our table. CATO and Fire attracted multiple signups.

As students walked by, we held fliers for our 30th Anniversary Event ("Celebrating 30 years of peace, love, and liberty!") and asked them "Do you like liberty?" If they showed further interest, we explained to them what we were and our activism interests--my line, which met with positive response, was "freedom and respect for all people." If someone wasn't sure if they aligned with libertarianism, we pressed that we still want to hear their beliefs as discussion is a big part of our club. We also advertised our event, both speaking of Dr. Palmer's legal victories for the 2nd Amendment and of his activism work against censorship in the former Soviet Union, the latter of which always generated interest regardless of political views. We got signups from students of many backgrounds, and overall I was relieved by how positive the interactions were.

One interesting interaction we had was that we were placed next to an organization focused on future educators--something that holds particular interest to me. I discussed my work in educational technology with their tabler, and she reacted very positively. She took our flier for our event and was open to our ideals of educational freedom. Opening with a common, relatively unpolitical interest was a great way to get the conversation going.

I believe what we can learn from this tabling session is that being open and friendly can go a long way. Emphasizing that you mean freedom for everyone, and are willing to walk that walk, is important. It is for this reason that I always mention our criminal justice reform events or belief in marriage liberty, as those are issues that many people don't associate with negative stereotypes of libertarians.

I'm hoping that our 30th Anniversary Event will go as smoothly as our tabling, as Dr. Palmer will be directly addressing the events in Charlottesville.

Ahead of YALCON I am excited to see the Anarchy vs. Minarchy debate between David Friedman and Austin Petersen. Our chapter at Hillsdale College brought Petersen in to speak last fall about the future of the liberty movement and his thoughts on the state of libertarianism following the 2016 election. He emphasized that it is important to be focused on where the liberty movement can grow and succeed in the future while still having that grounding in our intellectual philosophy. That is why Petersen's position for minarchy in this debate is particularly interesting, as there is a philosophical divide among libertarians. Each side has a strong philosophical argument, but there is much more to the debate than pure philosophy and Petersen will bring ideas both within and outside of academic libertarianism while Friedman follows a more pure academic approach. This debate is one many libertarians have and it will be great to learn and hear from two leaders in different areas of the liberty movement. It is rare that we get the opportunity to hear a productive discussion on this topic, and I hope that the debate will inspire people to challenge both themselves and others with these new ideas during and after YALCON.

Early this month, Lone Star College partnered up with University of Houston, University of Houston - Downtown, and Houston Baptist University to have a summer kick off social. During this social gathering our Texas State Chair, Michael Anderson, introduced all of the chapters to our newest Texas State Chair, Christian Ehmling. This was a fun filled evening of Chapter Presidents and State Chairs speaking about our community’s accomplishments and an attempt to come together to participate in community activism during the summer. Between Clayton, Michael, Isai, and myself we discussed coming together for more social events, a city hall protest, and even our plans to get to YALCON. We got to celebrate our victory on police body cams and talked about next steps in that fight. Having so many active chapters so close to each other makes it much easier to coordinate our activism. Perhaps more importantly, all the different YAL members in the area just get along so well, and the end of the social was pretty clear evidence of that. Between all of us dancing to the most random music and 4 or 5 of us pretending it was karaoke night at any given time, these YAL members know how to enjoy themselves. With such a great team, there’s no doubt that we’ll Make Liberty Win!

This semester our YAL group has enjoyed meeting on Tuesday evenings to really dig into some interesting topics. We have discussed events from media and censorship to occupational licensing and some other topics that allowed our group that already had good base knowledge in the philosophy of liberty to discuss some of the intricacies of these issues. A couple different members offered presentations on topics that were of interest to them to break up the monotony of having one presenter.

Three of us also got to attend the Spring Summit in Atlanta and really enjoyed the trainings (and the food.)

We had an awesome time out on the quad at HSU educating students on the United States' ridiculous and over-complicated tax code on Tax Day, April 18th. While not everyone agreed with us that taxation is theft, we still had a lot of great conversations about how the tax code should be simplified and made easier for regular citizens. We enlightened students on the facts of the current tax system and how a truly voluntary taxation system could work. It's events like these that will slowly shape the ideas of tomorrow, and here at HSU we will continue on our mission to spread the ideas of liberty, no matter how controversial.

On April 18th, American University’s YAL chapter held its closing speaker for the semester, the sharp and dedicated libertarian intellectual, the Cato institute Executive Vice President David Boaz! As the semester started to close with finals near, our YAL chapter made every effort to bring as many of our liberty-minded students as possible. We surpassed all expectations. Over forty students came to the event! Packing the room full of attentive listeners! For many, this was their first event, deciding to attend when they heard such a high-level libertarian intellectual was coming to speak.

The event itself started with little show, the excitement was organic and we only had to have him in the room to gather the audience’s interest. Our DC state chair, Annamarie Rienzi, grabbed the audience's attention, thanking everyone for attending and encouraging newcomers to sign up so they can know of future events. She then directed the audience's attention to our Outreach coordinator Renee Ermer. Renee provided a sincere introduction for Mr. Boaz, going through his credentials and accomplishments. By the time Mr. Boaz was ready to speak, new members who had previously knew very little on libertarianism, were intrigued and ready to hear what David Boaz had to say.

The event, “Reclaiming Freedom,” was an introductory course on the principles of freedom, and the role it had in the foundation of our country. He discussed his own journey from a traditional conservative into a libertarian as he realized he valued freedom over order. Mr. Boaz discussed the various philosophical positions he holds, made an effort to distinguish libertarianism from either political party or the mainstream liberalism vs conservatism beliefs. He urged the young students to err on the side of freedom, and to value and argue the empowering aspects of libertarianism as opposed to getting bogged down by nuance.

After the speech, we opened the floor to questions and nearly a third of the group had their hands up. The questions ranged from asking for the libertarian position on various issues, to asking for clarification on specific points, or to broad concerns about the libertarian movement in general. As an introduction to libertarianism as well as an opportunity for long-time libertarians to discuss more specific concerns. After an extended round of questions, we concluded the event with a round of applause and a group photo, one with the executive board and the other with the whole group. We thanked the regular attendees and the newcomers, and encouraged them to be ready for a new round of speakers and events in the fall!

I attended the YAL Spring Summit in Boston on March 26 and I thought it was great. My highlights were the comedian Lou Perez, the attorney from FIRE and of course Dr. Ron Paul. It has moved me to embrace liberty as part of policy. I will make sure, as I graduate this year, that I hand over the torch to someone who is liberty-minded.